[bosse]

Ah yes, the wietpas, a mandatory coffee shop membership card only available for residents and with a hard limit of 2000 members. When this government sanctioned system was put into play, the streets of Maastricht suddenly had plenty of aggressive pushers overnight, with no "brand" quality, health information or age checks, and plenty of nuisance in the streets.

It was so bad that the mayor of Amsterdam noped out of introducing it, together with most mayors in towns that doesn't kiss a border. I believe most, if not all coffee shops in the Randstad area (Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam, Utrecht) are still welcoming any adults into their coffee shops.

[roel_v]

Yes, the coffee shops do, and I'm not arguing that the residency-requirement wasn't (and isn't) a stupid idea. My point is that drug tourism isn't a net positive for the broader Dutch economy. Again, I'm not saying that that means it should be discouraged, but the GP seemed to imply that somehow more liberal drug laws elsewhere are a negative for the Netherlands - which it isn't.